There may be no truly great teams this season, but the good ones are starting to separate.
The Eagles dropped 45 first half points Monday night on the way to a ridiculous 59-28 victory over the Redskins. Philadelphia broke the Monday Night Football record for points with five minutes left in the third quarter.
We’ll have time later to dissect Michael Vick’s epic night (413 combined yards, 6 TDs), but let’s take a look at the big picture first. This was a defining loss for the Redskins, a team that is extremely unlikely to make the playoffs at 4-5. Consider the NFC landscape:
The Atlanta Falcons are 7-2, and six NFC teams are 6-3. Since the NFC West unfortunately gets a playoff spot, that leaves five spots for those remaining seven teams. The Redskins are two games back and have to pass three teams.
The NFL is predictably unpredictable, but we’d still be shocked to see teams like the Falcons, Saints, Giants, Packers, and Eagles collapse. The Bucs’ schedule and young quarterback should keep them in the mix to the very end. The Bears have the toughest road ahead.
The Redskins haven’t looked like a playoff team at any point this year anyway. Their defense gives up way too many big plays and the passing game is disjointed.
Even with seven games left to go, expensive NFC calamities like the Redskins and Vikings have too much ground to make up and too many teams ahead of them.